Convicted killer not guilty of flat attack
A convicted killer has been cleared of smashing his way into a flat and attacking his neighbour.
Daniel Bonner was said to have left his neighbour “petrified” after the incident in Main Street, Blantyre, on April 17 last year.
But Bonner, 35, was found not guilty after trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court this week.
He was jailed for four years and eight months in 2010 for culpable homicide.
The High Court in Glasgow heard that Bonner stabbed friend Liam Morrison, then 18, in the neck with scissors after an argument.
In the latest case, he was found guilty of resisting arrest and threatening or abusive behaviour towards police officers.
The jury found an allegation that he tried to spit on an officer not proven.
A witness told the court that he was looking after a friend’s flat and was wakened at about 2.30am by a disturbance outside the victim’s flat on the same floor.
He went on to tell the court that he recognised Bonner’s voice and that he was shouting : ‘I’m Danny Bonner, let me in. I’m going to get you. I’m going through this door’.
He then heard the victim’s door being kicked and received a
Facetime call in which the victim said: ‘He’s going to get through’.
The witness said that he heard the door being smashed.
He said that it seemed to “fall to pieces” and that someone was crawling through.
He heard the victim saying ‘get out, what are you doing? This is not my property. Who’s going to pay for this?’. The witness said Bonner was shouting, but he couldn’t make out what he was saying.
This continued for about 10 minutes until the police arrived.
The witness said he then saw Bonner, who lived upstairs, inside the victim’s flat.
He was wearing only boxer shorts. He added: “The victim was petrified.”
The victim claimed that he had been punched, but police said he had no visible injuries.
Defence agent Ian Scott said that Bonner accepted he acted aggressively towards the police.
However, he pointed to discrepancies in the evidence relating to the other charges and suggested that the evidence could not be relied on.
After the verdicts, Sheriff Alasdair Macfadyen deferred sentence until next month for a criminal justice social work report.
Bonner, who has been in prison since his arrest, was again remanded in custody.